WildCat
        1979-2011

The 1960's saw a lot of expansion for Cedar Point. That expansion would continue into the 1970's with the addition of Million Dollar Midway in 1970. Million Dollar Midway opened giving guest more rides to make lines shorter. In 1971 guest were sent back to the past with the opening of Frontier Trail. Giant Wheel opened in 1972. In 1975 Cedar Point Cinema opened featuring Imax movies!. Corkscrew became the first roller coaster in the world to flip rides upside down 3 times in 1976 on its new midway. In 1977 the Corkscrew Midway was expanded. Gemini became the world's tallest roller coaster in the world in 1978.

Cedar Point's original Wildcat opened in 1970. The ride was located between Sealand and the beach gate. Wildcat was a small compact roller coaster that gave riders a great view of the beach.

At the end of the 1978 season season Cedar Point began making room for its feature expansion. As a result the original Wildcat was relocated to Valleyfair! in Minnesota. Jumbo Jet was sold to another park and was removed. Cedar Point then put a new WildCat ride in the Jumbo Jet location.

The new WildCat was located just down the midway from the old one. Both rides shared similar stats to each other but were not exactly clones of each other. They were both slightly different but had the same general elements.

WildCat would remain in its location near Space Spiral until the end of the 1984 season.

In 1985 the former WildCat location would become home to Avalanche Run. In 1990 Avalanche Run would be converted into Disaster Transport. In 2012 Disaster Transport closed and was replaced with GateKeeper in 2013.

To make room for Avalanche Run, WildCat would be relocated to Million Dollar Midway. At the end of the 1984 season Bayern Curve was retired to make room for WildCat.

On the beach midway across for Kid Arthur's Court, Rotor was retired. In 1985 Schwabichen was relocated there. Schwabichen closed in 2002 and was replaced with Chaos in 2003.

WildCat opened in its new location in 1985. The midway would eventually be renamed WildCat Midway.

In 2003 WildCat's Color Scheme was changed to bright purple track and neon green supports.

WildCat
Ride Facts
Height: 50 feet
Speed: 40 MPH
Hills: 5
Inversions: 0
Type: Wildcat 65m
Designer: Ing.-Buro Stengel GmbH
Company: Schwarzkopf
Capacity: 900/HR
Opened: 1979
Closed: October 2011
Number of Coaster in 1979: 5
Cedar Point's only roller coaster to be relocated inside the park.
18 roller coasters have been added since WildCat opened.

WildCat was a great family roller coaster. Over the years the ride became a family favorite and it became outdated as newer rides would open. As the ride got older it would lose ridership due to bigger and better rides opening in the the park.

After the addition of WildCat, Cedar Point continued to add bigger and better rides! Over the next 32 years Cedar Point would add: Oceanea (1980-1998), Ocean Motion (1981), White Water Landing (1982-2005), Demon Drop (1983-2009), Avalanche Run (1985-1989), Thunder Canyon (1986), Iron Dragon (1987), Soak City Water Park (1988-2016), Disaster Transport (1990-2012), Mean Streak (1991-2016), Snake River Falls (1993), Raptor (1994), Mantis (1996-2014), Power Tower (1998), Camp Snoopy (1999), Millennium Force (2000), Wicked Twister (2002), Top Thrill Dragster (2003), maXair (2005), Skyhawk (2006), Maverick (2007), Planet Snoopy (2008), Shoot the Rapids (2010-2005) and WindSeeker (2011).


All of these rides would bring something new and unique to the park. WildCat would help have the way the rides that would come after.

In 2008 and again in 2011 WildCat had minor accidents in witch cars would bump into each other.

In February 2012, Cedar Point announced the WildCat midway would be converted into Celebration Plaza. WildCat was originally planned to remain in Celebration Plaza.

On May 2, 2012, Cedar Point announced that WildCat would be removed to make room for an expanded Celebration Plaza. WildCat would be the first Cedar Point roller coaster to be removed since 1978. The ride would be completely gone by opening day.

WildCat was replaced with a small bar and bleachers. The new additions helped make Celebration Plaza a more conferable place for guest.

After WildCat was removed Cedar Point continued to add unique experiences including: Dinosaurs Alive! (2012-2018), GateKeeper (2013), New Gemini Midway (2014), Rougarou (2015), Valravn (2016), Cedar Point Shores Water Park (2017), Steel Vengeance (2018) and Forbidden Frontier (2019). All of these changes are great, but WildCat is really missed.

Last Updated: 5/31/2020

Photos by: Andrew Borgen, Cedar Point, Russ Hauden, Ray Osburn, and Jake Hamons